Western Metallica drills 2.6% copper over 4.55 metres at Nueva Celti, Spain
Western Metallica Resources Corp. [WMS-TSXV] has provided the results of the first hole drilled at the company’s 100%-owned Nueva Celti project, a past-producing copper mine with significant exploration potential, located in the southernmost region of Spain.
Nueva Celti is a highly prospective project that spans 1,250 hectares with an additional 5,100 hectares in the process of being secured to the East of the known mineralization with the application of the Retortillo investigation permit.
The project is located in the Ossa Morena geological province in Andalusia, positioned in a region where copper mineralization has been recognized since ancient times. The Nueva Celti Project has now been prioritized by the company as a strategic exploration project due to these initial results demonstrating comparability to the vast amounts of regional and historical data, as well as past production of commercial grade copper with high quality infrastructure on and adjacent to the property.
Western Metallica recently launched a diamond drilling program aimed at validating the grades and confirming the geology interpreted compiling the historical information from the ‘Asturiana de Zinc’, Glencore, drilling program.
The drilling program will target the ore bodies below the historical mine levels with the aim of proving the continuity of the ore bodies at depth for at least 400 metres, and for more than 400 metres on strike. Furthermore, the Company has planned the execution of both gravimetric and magnetic ground geophysical surveys aimed at broadening the target area and immediately generating further drill targets. The company is financed to complete this program and a substantially larger program with approximately CAD $4.7 million in the treasury.
The results from the first hole, NCDD001, confirmed the presence of the ore bodies reported by the ‘Asturian de Zinc’, Glencore drilling program, as well as intersected other shallower and deeper mineralized zones with total widths and grades comparable with the historical results. The control on mineralization, mainly represented by a total >50% of disseminated magnetite, pyrite and chalcopyrite, seems mainly lithological with the copper-mineralized zone coinciding with layers of muscovite and biotite-schists locally fragmental (meta-volcaniclastics) within an amphibolite unit (meta-volcanics).
Drill hole NCDD001 returned 1.56 metres of 1.9% copper, 0.9% zinc, 0.1% lead, 23.0 g/t silver and 0.5 g/t gold; 4.87 metres of 1.8% copper, 1.1% zinc, 0.2% lead 18.2 g/t silver and 0.6 g/t gold; 4.55 metres of 2.6^ copper, 10.6 g/t silver and 0.5 g/t gold; 6.38 metres of 1.1% copper, 0.3% zinc, 7.3 g/t silver and 0.3 g/t gold; 9.60 metres of 0.9% copper, 0.2% zinc, 6.7 g/t silver and 0/3 g/t gold; and 2.35 metres of 0.8% copper, 0.5% zinc; 0.2% lead, 12.1 g/t silver and 0.4 g/t gold.
Results of the second drill hole, NCDD002, localized 100 metres north of drill hole NCDD001, are expected to be returned at the beginning of May. Management’s initial impression is that orebodies may anastomose giving origin to a single, wider, Cu-sulfide-bearing body.
Western Metallica is in the process of securing the land covering the potential repetition toward the East of the same-trending mineralization, with the application of the Retortillo investigation permit covering 5,100 hectares. With the amalgamation of Nueva Celti and the Retortillo permit, the prospective project could span over 6,300 hectares of combined exploration potential.
Western Metallica’s principal asset is its Nueva Celti Copper Property in the Ossa Morena belt in Andalusia, Spain. Western Metallica also holds interests in three other Spanish gold projects in the Navelgas Gold Belt in Asturias, Spain (Penedela, Valledor and Sierra Alta).